Taliban leader Mullah Omar has formally confirmed the death of top commander Mullah Dadullah, through a spokesman, and nominated Mullah Bakht Mohammad as his replacement. The elusive Mullah Omar also claimed there are thousands of fighters ready to avenge Dadullah's death and called for an immediate return of Dadullah's corpse to his family. Dadullah's brother, Shah Mansoor, and two other senior Taliban officials released from prison in exchange for the safe release of a foreign journalist in March have also been killed, according to Afghan intelligence officials. The trio, including commanders Mullah Ghaffar and Mullah Hamdullah, were killed hours before US forces killed Mullah Dadullah in Helmand province on May 12. (Afgha.com, May 16)

During the May 15 Republican presidential debate at the University of South Carolina, Libertarian gadly Rep. Ron Paul (TX) dared to speak logic about the reasons behind 9-11—and made clear that he, at least, has actually read al-Qaeda's communiqués. "Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attacked us because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years." Of course he had to play a stupid xenophobia/Orientalism card, and paradoxically invoke to his defense Ronald Reagan, whose imperial intrigues in the Islamic world only helped create al-Qaeda: "I think Reagan was right. We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics." But he quickly rescued himself with some simple logic and humanity: "So right now we're building an embassy in Iraq that's bigger than the Vatican. We're building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us." Of course, no good deed goes unpunished—and Paul's punishment came swiftly...

Two years ago, following rumors that Osama bin Laden had taken refuge in Nuristan, we warned that the remote mountain region immortalized as "Kafiristan" in Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King would be drawn into Afghanistan's war. Now, alas, our prediction has been vindicated. A roadside bomb killed seven Afghan soldiers in Nuristan's Kamdesh district May 14, and the following day Afghan soldiers killed six Taliban insurgents in the province, governor Tamim Nuristani said. Over 1,300, mostly said to be Taliban militants, have been killed in Afghanistan this year. (Pakistan Online News, Reuters, May 16)

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has brought in trainers from Colombia to prepare a new Afghan anti-narcotics force. Opium cultivation has steadily grown in Afghanistan since the US invasion of 2001, leaping from 183,000 acres in 2002 to 408,000 last year. So far this year, about 20,000 acres have been destroyed, according to the United Nations. The crop is expected to yield more than 6,500 tons of opium, exceeding global demand. The export value—about $3.1 billion—is equivalent to about half of the legal Afghan economy. The Taliban, which banned opium cultivation when they were in power, are now said to be overseeing its cultivation to fund their insurgency. (NYT via Pakistan Tribune, May 16)

An interesting report from IraqSlogger, May 15:

An unknown left-wing group calling itself the Iraqi Armed Revolutionary Resistance distributed leaflets in the Mid-Euphrates area around Najaf, Hilla and Karbala calling for "resistance against American, British and Zionist occupiers in order to liberate Iraq and form a free socialist, democratic alternative," according to the Al-Badeel Al-Iraqi website. The group, which described itself as a "movement of Iraqi Communists and Marxists experienced in armed struggle, leftist Iraqi nationalists, and their supporters," claimed responsibility for an attack against U.S. troops at the Khan Al-Nus area between Najaf and Karbla on Sunday. The leaflets, which carried a photo of Cuban Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, announced the launch of the resistance in the Mid-Euphrates and condemned the "puppet government, the so-called Council of Representatives, terrorist Salafis, militias, the Interior Ministry, Iraqi traitors who came on American tanks, the American and British mercenaries, contractors, and their servants from the South Lebanese Army." Printed in both Arabic and English, the statement said car bombs and roadside bombs killing Iraqis are planted by the above groups to damage the reputation of Iraqi resistance groups.

With all the paranoia about al-Qaeda and ETA, it seems the latest bomb scare in Spain may be the work of radical urban preservationists. Police say they deactivated an explosive device May 15 found outside an industrial warehouse in Lugo, in the remote and usually peaceful northern region of Galicia. A police spokesman said the device—a pressure cooker loaded with shrapnel and armed with a detonator—could have caused a "massacre" if it had gone off. Two local newspapers received warnings by e-mail, which accused the construction company of being responsible for "urban destruction" in Lugo. (TypicallySpanish, May 15)

From the Times of India, May 16:

NEW DELHI — The government on Tuesday informed Parliament that naxalites were working in close coordination with some terrorist outfits operating in J&K and were also in touch with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka.

Turkey's Supreme Court May 16 overturned a 40-year prison term imposed on two paramilitary officers for overseeing the bombing of a bookstore in the eastern town of Semdinli two years ago. The blast, which killed one person, sparked angry protests across Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. The Supreme Court overturned the sentences of 39 years and five months meted out to each of the two non-commissioned officers, Ali Kaya and Ozcan Ildeniz, saying there had been shortcomings in the investigation and recommending their case be re-examined by a local military court. The case shined a spotlight on Turkey's so-called "deep state," code for elements in the security forces and bureaucracy who act above the law to protect national interests.